Chris Willman Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Chris Willman Music Writer“We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert,” the Clive Davis-programmed concert in Central Park, was called off just past its halfway point Saturday due to lightning strikes occurring within a 10-mile radius of the Great Lawn.Barry Manilow was mid-medley at 8:37 p.m. — with more than two hours left to go in the five-hour concert — when he was interrupted by an announcer saying: “Attention.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Head Over Heels,” the Broadway production that put the song catalog of the Go-Go’s to use as the basis of a narrative musical-comedy, is finally reaching the band’s hometown of Los Angeles this fall, just in time to roughly coincide with the group getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.The show’s production at the Pasadena Playhouse, though, where it’s slated as the storied venue’s reopening attraction Nov.

Chris Willman Music Writer“You know I won an Oscar, right?” H.E.R. asked at the Hollywood Bowl — reminding the audience that however blessed she was to be selling out two nights at the nation’s most storied venue, and anxious at the idea of performing with Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A.

Jordan Moreau Variety has been nominated for 62 Southern California Journalism Awards, including two for entertainment journalist of the year, one for print journalist of the year, best traditional news website and best in-house or corporate publication.The awards, given out by the Los Angeles Press Club, honor outstanding journalism in the region across print, digital, radio and broadcast platforms.Features editor Chris Willman and chief film critic Owen Gleiberman are both up for

Chris Willman Music Writer“Her voice — it’s just like butter,” said a patron of the Hollywood Bowl Friday night, using the familiar “SNL”-derived description of Barbra Streisand’s voice and applying it to the weekend’s headliner, Christina Aguilera. Not to critique the critiques of esteemed season ticket-holders, but this comparison seemed exactly wrong.

Chris Willman Music Writer“A love letter to cinema” was the tired-but-true trope that everyone trotted out when Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” the movie, hit theaters two years ago. But it’s now clear just how insufficient a mere mash note to the movies was for Tarantino.

Variety music critics Jem Aswad and Chris Willman found a lot to love across genres, from hip-hop (Tyler, the Creator, Madlib, Topaz Jones) to rock (St. Vincent, Wolf Alice, Liz Phair, Dirty Laundry) to global music (Mdou Moctar, Altin Gun) to indie singer-songwriters (Julien Baker, Lucy Dacas, Girl in Red) to even mid-20th-century jazz standards (Mandy Barnett).

Chris Willman Music Writer“Elfman sings!” It’s almost as grabby a potential catchphrase as “Garbo speaks.” But of course, Danny Elfman has participated in the talkies before… or, to put it in plainer terms, his new album, “Big Mess,” does not mark the first time he’s stood in front of a rock ‘n’ roll band in the studio to make a vocal record.

Chris Willman Music Writer+ Nick Petropoulos, who joined Arista Records early last year after an 11-year run at Glassnote Records, has been upped by Arista to oversee the label’s promotion department.

Chris Willman Music Writer“The garbage people are going to come by the house,” Liz Phair says suddenly over a Zoom call. While it might seem like she’s declaring an impending hard out, with Shirley Manson and Butch Vig perhaps set to swing through, she’s referencing actual Manhattan Beach trash collectors.

Chris Willman Music Writer“American Idol” has set no fewer than a dozen music stars for the series’ grand finale May 23 — three of whom may be fairly predictable, given that Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Katy Perry are the show’s judges.Not quite as foreseeable in the final show’s performing pecking order: Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, Luke Combs, Mickey Guyton, Lindsey Buckingham, Fall Out Boy, Alessia Cara, Leona Lewis and Macklemore.The show will air on ABC live across time zones May 23 at 8 p.m.

Chris Willman Music Writer+ Finneas doesn’t keep it all in the family with his mentoring. He’ll be providing guidance to the top five as a mentor on the May 16 episode of “American Idol,” which will air live in all time zones.

Chris Willman Music Writer“This is a rock concert!” Dave Grohl kept repeating, over and over, with and without the F-word inserted, at Sunday night’s filming of Global Citizen’s “Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World” at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

Chris Willman Music Writer‘Twas the night before Earth Day, and all through houses tuned in to National Geographic’s website or YouTube channel will be the sounds of artists including Willie Nelson, Valerie June, Ziggy Marley and My Morning Jacket, all performing for “Earth Day Eve 2021: A Virtual Celebration.”Others joining in in song for the 90-minute webcast include Maggie Rogers, Yo-Yo Ma, Angélique Kidjo, Aurora, José González and Rostam.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Dorothy, I don’t think we’re on the Old Town Road anymore,” as the saying goes.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Alone Together,” a documentary about the creation of Charli XCX’s 2020 album “How I’m Feeling Now,” aims to show how the singer pulled together a full-fledged project last year under quarantine conditions and an arbitrarily fast, self-imposed deadline. But, in truth, the film is really the second time the album’s creation has been documented.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Life Is Beautiful” is hopeful — very hopeful — that life will be carefree for festival-goers by September, when Las Vegas will host what could be the first major post-quarantining music festival in the West. Ticket buyers returned that optimism in major numbers by selling out three-day passes for the annual festival “in record time” Friday, organizers reported.The possibly immunized herd is set to gather Sept.

Chris Willman Music Writer“It’s just a number,” says Ray Benson, waxing modest about a couple of big ones that are arriving this year for himself and his group, “but as you know, being in the business, publicists need something to hang their hat on.” Then again, honoring significant round numbers feels appropriate for someone who invented the Wheel — Asleep at the Wheel, that is, the progressive Western-swing group that will be commemorating its 50th anniversary with an all-star show, God and

Chris Willman Music Writer“Turntables” is not, as you might guess from its placement in the documentary “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” a song written to extol vinyl. It uses that film’s exploration of the historical and recent suppression of Black voters’ rights in Georgia as a launchpad to explore “what’s goin’ on” in a nation still not done turning away from racial inequities.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Could Taylor Swift’s remake of ‘Fearless’ be nominated for the Grammys?” It’s a question that has arisen repeatedly in the short time since Swift released “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” and promised that her full-length recreation of the blockbuster 2008 “Fearless” album would arrive in April.It’s an interesting question… in a completely theoretical, “Who’d win in a fight, Santa Claus or Jesus?” kind of way, in that it will never have any serious real-world

Chris Willman Music Writer“Taylor’s Version” of the 2008 Taylor Swift hit “Love Story” was greeted as a new hit by much of her fan base. The re-recording has entered the Rolling Stone songs chart at No.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Buffalo, you’ve been so kind to us,” Todd Rundgren said toward the end of his tour-opening show Sunday night. He was actually performing in Chicago, as most fans watching the pay-per-view livestream knew, but this was not a senior/Spinal Tap “Hello Cleveland!” moment.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Well, this may seem like déjà vu…” wrote filmmaker Tamara Saviano on her Facebook page this week, alerting friends that her documentary about musician Guy Clark, “Without Getting Killed or Caught” was being announced Thursday as premiering at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival… just as  it was announced for last year.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street” has the good fortune to be arriving with about a hundred more built-in advantages than most documentaries. Offering up vintage backstage footage of Jim Henson and Frank Oz operating the Muppets feels a little like Henry Houdini coming back to reveal all his secrets.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Pass the Mic,” meet “Pass the Presidency.” DJ Cassidy has the distinction of being the only musical participant in Wednesday’s inaugural festivities to be featured as part of two separate events, for which he’s produced a pair of segments of his popular “Pass the Mic” series in honor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris getting their own mic-pass.The first appearance, in the virtual inaugural parade in the afternoon, will be focused on the classics.

Chris Willman Music Writer“I like it better when we’re intertwined,” Dua Lipa sings in her song “Cool,” maybe speaking for all of us who are doing Thanksgiving weekend and pretty much every other weekend of 2020 unentangled from most human beings.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Wildflowers” may be the most aggressively beloved of Tom Petty’s albums among his most serious fans, and no one has been more passionate about it than Adria Petty, the elder of the late musician’s two daughters.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Savage Mode II,” a joint album from Metro Boomin and 21 Savage, debuted atop the Rolling Stone album chart this week, with 166,400 album units.

Chris Willman Music Writer“‘Forrest Gump’ with a mantra” — that’s the underlying premise, in a nutshell, of “Meeting the Beatles in India,” which has filmmaker Paul Saltzman recounting the week he spent hanging with the Beatles under the tutelage of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during their famous sojourn to the ashram in 1968.

Chris Willman Music Writer“Linda and the Mockingbirds,” a documentary about Linda Ronstadt making a journey to Mexico to explore her musical roots there, has been picked up for worldwide rights by Shout! Studios, the distribution and production division of the Shout! Factory home video company.The film was originally slated to premiere at the Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend.

Elaine Low Senior TV WriterVariety‘s Chris Willman won entertainment journalist of the year at the 62nd Annual Southern California Journalism Awards, held virtually Saturday evening amid the ongoing pandemic.Willman also won in the music criticism category for his reviews, as well as in the music and theater news or feature category for “Interview with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.”Variety was awarded eight prizes in total at this year’s awards, including best in-house or corporate publication for

Chris Willman Music Writer“You see your whole life flash in front of you in an hour and some minutes, and then it’s like, wow, did all that really happen? Because I always felt I’m in somewhat of a dream to begin with,” says Herb Alpert, subject of a new documentary about his life from director John Scheinfeld (“Chasing Trane,” “Who Is Harry Nilsson”). It’s a dream that now has a release date: “Herb Alpert Is…” is hitting theaters and VOD on Oct.

Chris Willman Music Writer“It’s shocking that they don’t just stay until they figure it out,” says Audrey Fix Schaefer of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), speaking about Congress adjourning Thursday without taking up federal legislation to relieve businesses hardest hit by the pandemic.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterVariety has been nominated for 56 Southern California Journalism Awards, including three for entertainment journalist of the year and two for in-house/corporate publication.The awards, given out by the Los Angeles Press Club, honor outstanding journalism in the region across print, digital, radio and broadcast platforms.Variety’s chief TV critic Daniel D’Addario, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman and feature editor Chris Willman are vying for entertainment

Chris Willman Music Writer“Live From Here With Chris Thile,” the weekly radio show that began as a continuation of “A Prairie Home Companion” before taking on its own name and identity, has been canceled, American Public Media Group announced Tuesday.The St.

By Chris Willman